If there’s one thing we love to do in motorsports, it’s have a debate. While sports like basketball can bog themselves forever in the LeBron vs MJ debate, racing fans have a knack for getting deep into an issue and look to expand that into their entire view point for the sport. There’s nothing like a good old “if Kevin Lepage had finished 24th at Las Vegas in 1999 instead of 21st would Kyle Busch be a superstar today” question. It helps define our collective fanbase as highly informed and highly batshit insane. And I fucking love it.
As such, I wanted to take to Twitter, or “X” or whatever the hell it’s called at the time of this publication and see if I can solve some NASCAR debates “once and for all.” Opening the door for any and all questions I’m going to tackle a small handful each week until we either solve all of racing’s arguments…or we all just get tired of doing this.
As always, if you’re going to take this too seriously, I thank you for your time and invite you to read the works of some other great writers at The Slow Restart. I’ll be taking every question seriously, but this is just one fan’s opinion and if anything I’m looking to continue these debates rather than close them forever. Anyway, let’s dig right in and see what’s on the mind of the auto racing community.
Question from @NIKSHERR
Can Matt [DiBenedetto] rejuvenate his career and get back to Cup at some point?
Answer: I think Matt D is making sound improvements now in his second year in the Truck series with Rackley WAR. The trouble is, for a Cup driver, he’s actually behind the curve to historic metrics when drivers in this situation come down to Truck. DiBenedetto is a bit younger than the Johnny Benson and Ted Musgrave(s) of the world, but those guys almost to a man would become instant race win contenders if not dominant right out of the gate. In Matt’s case however, he went to a team that’s never done particularly well and he’s made them better by being their driver, and that typically all you can ask of a guy.
I don’t think Matt D is any less of a driver than he was when he was driving solidly for the Wood Bros in Cup, and he’s made some very important changes to his public image presentation alongside. Cup could still be on the table, but it would take a lot of moving parts to make happen, and it may not be in the ride his driving abilities would necessarily deserve. JJ Yeley looked D-O-N-E after his first couple Cup rides, and he’s more revered than ever as a “more with less” driver in 2023, so nothing’s off the table for Matt DiBenedetto.
Question from @beardedGrohs95
Would Jeff Gordon be the driver of the 90s if Davey [Allison] didn’t die?
Answer: This is one of those questions that’s going to dog us for decades, as there’s no doubt that Davey Allison was a lynchpin to a lot of things that took place in the 1990s. Quick recap for those perhaps too young to remember: Davey Allison was in the prime of his career after nearly winning the 1992 Cup title and driving for Robert Yates during their glory years with Larry MacReynolds and co. in the legendary 28 car. Davey passed away after a helicopter crash at Talladega mid-season, having already won a race in 1993 with 19 total Cup victories to his credit. With the loss of reigning champion Alan Kulwicki earlier that same year, a changing of the guard was imminent and Jeff Gordon appeared to be the biggest beneficiary, vaulting into absolute stardom.
The question here is whether Davey Allison would have “prevented,” for lack of a better word, the dominance of Jeff Gordon in the 90s. For that I’d deem it unlikely. That’s less of a dig at Davey’s legacy, but more of a proof of concept that Robert Yates Racing still remained strong for the rest of the decade. Ernie Irvin would eventually take over the 28 car and won 2 races almost immediately, and continued to win in 1994 before an accident took him out of the car. RYR chugged right along and won with Dale Jarrett as well as Irvin once returning to full health. Robert Yates Racing won 25 Cup races from Davey’s tragic passing to the end of the decade. While Davey would certainly have been the driver for some if not more of those wins, Jeff Gordon still had to contend with this team throughout the decade and could be considered a fierce rival.
From a popularity standpoint, Davey Allison left behind a dedicated fan base that you can STILL see the vestiges of at every track on the NASCAR calendar. With that, Jeff Gordon filled a need for a lot of fans needing a young superstar, and who’s to say some of those Gordon fans wouldn’t have been with Davey all through that decade and beyond? Would Jeff Gordon still have been a dominant driver? It seems like that was always going to happen. Would he have defined the decade with Davey Allison racing alongside? Well….geez I just think it would have been a LOT harder for that California Kid.
Question from @rfkracing_fan
What if Mark Martin was a NASCAR Cup champion?
Answer: All diseases would have been cured, we’d have communities living on Mars, and we’d speak openly with members of the animal kingdom.
While I believe all that to be true, the more realistic answer is that we may have had more balance towards the end of the Winston Cup points era. I don’t know if that would have been enough to prevent the Chase format from rearing its ugly head, but champion Mark Martin may have had a greater unspoken influence on the sport. Martin not having that Cup was a nagging little thing that NASCAR would have been thrilled to see happen, and after Dale Jr lost to a one-win Wisconsin driver in Matt Kenseth, it was game over for the season long championship.
Question from @nascar_7_
Can Hailie [Deegan] drive a decent race if given more opportunities in xfinity?
Answer: I think Halie Deegan is one of those drivers that’s always going to be overrated by some and underrated by others, and there’s no getting around that. She’s driving for a true-blue successful truck team, and it still seems that victory lane is a long way off in her program, so it’s time to ask some tough questions. The first thing I wanted to look at was to consider DNFs year over year in trucks to see if there was anything eye popping.
DNFs by year for Hailie Deegan in trucks (Sourced by Racing Reference)
2021: 3 DNFs for “Crash”
2022: 7 DNFs, 5 listed as “Crash”
2023 YTD: 3 DNFs for “Crash” (65% of season complete)
The trends aren’t good, at least not for Trucks. All that aside, Truck racing is becoming a punchline for getting taken out in someone else’s mess, and at least anecdotally it seems the unforced errors are getting lower in number as time goes on. Deegan is a popular name, and from what I can tell there’s still an interest. The Xfinity series has looked better than ever, and if she can get a 5-10 race deal where she can not only make the race on speed but actually make some quality passes without wrecking the car…the sky’s the limit on where we could go from there.
Question from @notsammie54361
Is Richard Petty the most overrated driver in NASCAR history?
Answer: This is an interesting one that gets talked about a lot in these kinds of circles. When you’re called the King of NASCAR racing, there’s naturally a lot of reason to interrogate that notion and try to determine if there was someone better. For me, The King has never meant “the best racer ever in NASCAR” nor does having the most Cup wins automatically make you the greatest. That said, I don’t think the narrative on Petty makes him the most overrated or even someone that far out of balance with their standing in history. There’s also a lot more to consider. Richard Petty is still someone you see and talk about nearly every day when it comes to NASCAR. He’s been the near perfect ambassador for NASCAR since before we even had color televisions, and has been one of the few people to even improve his own narrative on social and dynamic issues that have tested the sport in the years since.
There have been more dominant winners, there have been more impressive drivers, but no matter how you slice it, 200 wins, 7 Championships and 7 Daytona 500s is going to enter you in the all-timer discussion for the rest of our lives and beyond. Richard Petty is The King, and I’m not going to be the one to take off his crown.
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